considdering that the fish they feed to PAANTS! is the same size as pohls newly hatched daughter i´m even more freaked out then selkie – eating those things and wearing their skin might be sheer self defence: you gotta eat ’em before they eat you!
I think I might be living in or near the same place. I’d prefer not to think of giant eels looking for a lunch swimming around in the lake I’m swimming in, either.
Selkie is not yet used to thinking of herself as “prey”. All her life she’s considered herself the “predator”. Before today, eels were something SHE ate, not visa versa.
This abrupt epiphany that she’s not at the top of the food chain is a bit jarring.
Fun fact, in the original script it was chum and not whole fish being fed to them. Decided to tone down the grossness a bit though, since there was already a blood-smeared mouth and teeth involved.
What I find disturbing is that the eels heard the word “pants” often enough to mimic it. Has someone been taunting them about their fate? I’m imagining my reaction if someone taught a parrot to say “I’m KFC”, or if cows could be taught to say “mooo-cDonalds”.
No different than a 4H kid naming the hog he’s raising Pork Chops.
“Taunting them”? They have to understand for a taunt to work.
If I had been captured in Vietnam and locked up in a bamboo cage, the NVA could poke me with sticks and spit on me and throw rocks and water buffalo poop at me, but unless they spoke English or I spoke Vietnamese, they couldn’t taunt me. Some gal yells something at me and I don’t know if it’s “GI, you die”, or “Me love you long time”.
Actually, I think “pants” is a FAR more insidious lure cry than “hello”. We’ll use that feeder’s metaphor.
In the dark forest, where you know you’re in danger, you hear a cry.
“hello hello hello!”
Cautious and suspicious, you stay right where you are and call back “Hello? Who’s there? What’s happening over there? Are you friend or foe?”
Conversely, from the dark shadows of the woods you hear: “Pants… PANTS! Paaaaaants!”
You blink in utter bafflement. “WTF? ‘pants’? What the hell is going on down that way? If I don’t go see, the wondering will drive me nuts for days.”
How so? She eats fish. She eats the eyes. It’s a catchy, silly song. And can you just imagine the sadistic glee she might derive teaching these eels to sing that song when they fed?
Or maybe I just have a seriously messed up sense of humor.
Would anyone *need* to introduce her to it? She’s obviously up-to-date on different media (remembering her movie reference to flatulence on fire), so it’s not unheard of that she could have heard a Dr. Demento show or two…
Yesterday I pictured Restaurant at the end of the universe… today Jurassic park… the eels get out… they are stalking them… your partner yells “Over here, I found them” you swim over to help and… “Clever girl…”
So less like “Parrots” and more like “Will o’ Wisps” or something out of Lovecraft’s nightmares. I wouldn’t have minded these things being made into leather even if they were docile, but now I really don’t mind them being made into leather!
To be fair, Pants the Murder Eel is cuddly compared to some of my nightmares. I think he’s actually adorable in a totally-wants-to-eat-you kind of way.
Two words: Battle. Mount.
Imagine the Calvary riding trained Murder Eels into battle.
And yes. They are forever known as Murder Eels in my mind.
Maybe not on a “open field, one on one” situation (there was the talk of sarnothi being apex predators) but with the hypothetical situation posed here I would definitely give advantage to the sneak-attacker.
I think it’s more that while the sarnothi breed/farm/hunt the eels, and would probably be fine 1-on-1 (unless the sarnothi was young/inexperienced) if the circumstances favored the eel, the eel could be quite dangerous and/or wouldn’t hesitate to eat whoever it came upon. I mean, aside from their natural offensive/defensive capabilities (teeth & ease of movement underwater & all that) they create & use various tools/weapons, which really solidify that “top of the food chain” position. They’re probably more evenly matched without gear than a human & wolf would be (despite humans being “top of the chain” I wouldn’t want to go up against a wolf unprotected/unarmed, but I think a sarnothi could hold their own against an eel if not caught by surprise)
Sound like the Sarnothi equivalent of skinwalkers. They’d lure in new victims by mimicking a previous victims last words. Thing is they’d mimic the last thing the last victim said, which would likely be “Help, Help!”
I heard there used to be a belief that hyenas could mimic people like that. Admittedly my source was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and therefore may not be accurate to ‘actual myths and superstitions’.
Or maybe the Sarnothi would sometimes hunt on land. They do have air-breathing capabilities too. Though… hopefully there wouldn’t be eels. Maybe there are kelp forests in Lake Superior after all :O
I imagine the eel-keepers might have taught the eels to mimic “PANTS!”, so that if one escapes, everybody knows better than to fall for a voice saying “PANTS!”
Watching the keepers feed the eels and describe how dangerous eels are even when the eels are destined to be food/leather themselves
Sokka: Come on, Aang, everyone here eats meat. Even the meat. [Points at a hippo cow eating a piece of meat swarming with flies.]
{Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season 3, Episode 2 (42nd of the overall series)}
Or feed them your hands.
HANNNNDS I AM HANNNDS!!!!!
Now I’m thinking of that episode of Futurama where Fry fed a T-rex and it ate his hands.
Okay, fine, Pants should probably not be a recurring character. *shudder*
I find him endearing.
considdering that the fish they feed to PAANTS! is the same size as pohls newly hatched daughter i´m even more freaked out then selkie – eating those things and wearing their skin might be sheer self defence: you gotta eat ’em before they eat you!
EELMON – gotta eat em all
consider this: theres a buncha those loose in a great lake
I live by all of them, so how about no
I think I might be living in or near the same place. I’d prefer not to think of giant eels looking for a lunch swimming around in the lake I’m swimming in, either.
Probably not a lot of tourists. There’s a movie about this: Jaws.
Why’s she scared of eels devouring dead fish? She’s chased fish in the river before.
Because she’s just been told they’d be happy to do the same to her?
I’d be happy to tuck into a nice porterhouse, but I’d freak out watching a tiger tear into a hunk of cow a few feet away…
dude. as long as you dont get between the tiger and the meal your pretty safe
Watch Five Nights at Freddies by Markiplier sometime, hell, any video done for a game with a ton of jump scares. Same deal here.
And Eels have a mean streak. I wouldn’t be happy in that situation either.
She’s never watched something bigger than her snap up a fish with it’s jaws two feet in front of her face, though.
If that happened to me – maybe I’d need a new pair of pants too.
PAAAAANNNNTSSSSS!!!!!!
+1
^_^
Selkie is not yet used to thinking of herself as “prey”. All her life she’s considered herself the “predator”. Before today, eels were something SHE ate, not visa versa.
This abrupt epiphany that she’s not at the top of the food chain is a bit jarring.
The eels when they appeared in the previous strip were disturbing, but now not as such somehow.
You’re right. Maybe its because they’re now more like predators and not like parrots in a poultry farm?
So… they are like those reptile-thingys from SCP Containement Breach?
I can see what you were going for, but fish don’t bleed like that.
Also, don’t they tend to float?
fish only float when decay products have started building up like any other dead thing
Fun fact, in the original script it was chum and not whole fish being fed to them. Decided to tone down the grossness a bit though, since there was already a blood-smeared mouth and teeth involved.
Ah, so it WAS like parrots, as people thought, only more horrifying!
Think more the movie Wolfen. A predator learning how to lure the best or only prey in the area.
Would you say that the feeder fish it was given to chew on was Pantsed ?
What I find disturbing is that the eels heard the word “pants” often enough to mimic it. Has someone been taunting them about their fate? I’m imagining my reaction if someone taught a parrot to say “I’m KFC”, or if cows could be taught to say “mooo-cDonalds”.
“mooo-cDondals” made me giggle. I think I might possibly be okay with it.
… or maybe not. But it still makes me giggle!
Apparently it also makes me spell poorly. :-/
No different than a 4H kid naming the hog he’s raising Pork Chops.
“Taunting them”? They have to understand for a taunt to work.
If I had been captured in Vietnam and locked up in a bamboo cage, the NVA could poke me with sticks and spit on me and throw rocks and water buffalo poop at me, but unless they spoke English or I spoke Vietnamese, they couldn’t taunt me. Some gal yells something at me and I don’t know if it’s “GI, you die”, or “Me love you long time”.
How about a beefer (4H kid raising a cow) naming it “Sir Loin of Beef?”
cows only moo (actualy known as Lowing) as a warning or when they need to be milked.
OK. Then the Sesame-Street cow. The one that sank “mooo-ilk” while she passed out milk bottles to all the kids and monsters….
Actually, I think “pants” is a FAR more insidious lure cry than “hello”. We’ll use that feeder’s metaphor.
In the dark forest, where you know you’re in danger, you hear a cry.
“hello hello hello!”
Cautious and suspicious, you stay right where you are and call back “Hello? Who’s there? What’s happening over there? Are you friend or foe?”
Conversely, from the dark shadows of the woods you hear: “Pants… PANTS! Paaaaaants!”
You blink in utter bafflement. “WTF? ‘pants’? What the hell is going on down that way? If I don’t go see, the wondering will drive me nuts for days.”
Fish heads, fish heads, rolypoly fish heads, fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum!
Has Todd introduced Selkie to this song yet, by chance?
no and he may stuff you in a mail box for doing so Justifyably so. i might add.
How so? She eats fish. She eats the eyes. It’s a catchy, silly song. And can you just imagine the sadistic glee she might derive teaching these eels to sing that song when they fed?
Or maybe I just have a seriously messed up sense of humor.
I think it’s more that she will sing it all the time, constantly, thus annoying everyone around her forever.
I have a feeling that it has more to do with the way she would be singing it nonstop, most likely when he can’t get away. Like during long road trips.
Would anyone *need* to introduce her to it? She’s obviously up-to-date on different media (remembering her movie reference to flatulence on fire), so it’s not unheard of that she could have heard a Dr. Demento show or two…
Yesterday I pictured Restaurant at the end of the universe… today Jurassic park… the eels get out… they are stalking them… your partner yells “Over here, I found them” you swim over to help and… “Clever girl…”
So less like “Parrots” and more like “Will o’ Wisps” or something out of Lovecraft’s nightmares. I wouldn’t have minded these things being made into leather even if they were docile, but now I really don’t mind them being made into leather!
Or, y’know, the gift that keeps on talking. 😉
I thought for a bit this was going to be like The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, with the cow who wanted to be eaten.
The truth is something almost right out of your nightmares o_O
To be fair, Pants the Murder Eel is cuddly compared to some of my nightmares. I think he’s actually adorable in a totally-wants-to-eat-you kind of way.
Two words: Battle. Mount.
Imagine the Calvary riding trained Murder Eels into battle.
And yes. They are forever known as Murder Eels in my mind.
I was actually thinking of the SCP Foundation, those monsters who eat the voices of the people they consume. Hence the “from nightmares”.
So eels are their natural predators? Or something like that.
Maybe not on a “open field, one on one” situation (there was the talk of sarnothi being apex predators) but with the hypothetical situation posed here I would definitely give advantage to the sneak-attacker.
I think it’s more that while the sarnothi breed/farm/hunt the eels, and would probably be fine 1-on-1 (unless the sarnothi was young/inexperienced) if the circumstances favored the eel, the eel could be quite dangerous and/or wouldn’t hesitate to eat whoever it came upon. I mean, aside from their natural offensive/defensive capabilities (teeth & ease of movement underwater & all that) they create & use various tools/weapons, which really solidify that “top of the food chain” position. They’re probably more evenly matched without gear than a human & wolf would be (despite humans being “top of the chain” I wouldn’t want to go up against a wolf unprotected/unarmed, but I think a sarnothi could hold their own against an eel if not caught by surprise)
Humans are apex predators, yet one on one with a tiger without long range and a matching weapon… yeah.
Sound like the Sarnothi equivalent of skinwalkers. They’d lure in new victims by mimicking a previous victims last words. Thing is they’d mimic the last thing the last victim said, which would likely be “Help, Help!”
I heard there used to be a belief that hyenas could mimic people like that. Admittedly my source was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and therefore may not be accurate to ‘actual myths and superstitions’.
The ‘forest’ term confuses me a lot, but other than that very nice!
Never heard of a kelp forest? And of course I know kelp is a marine species but maybe there’s a freshwater equivalent in this comic.
Or maybe the Sarnothi would sometimes hunt on land. They do have air-breathing capabilities too. Though… hopefully there wouldn’t be eels. Maybe there are kelp forests in Lake Superior after all :O
Very interesting tactic. Means they prey specifically on social animals.
Scariest Sea-Parrot Ever. O_O
Delightfully creepy.
It occurred to me. The one saying pants. That’s what someone kept telling him what he’s going to be made into.
I imagine the eel-keepers might have taught the eels to mimic “PANTS!”, so that if one escapes, everybody knows better than to fall for a voice saying “PANTS!”
Watching the keepers feed the eels and describe how dangerous eels are even when the eels are destined to be food/leather themselves
Sokka: Come on, Aang, everyone here eats meat. Even the meat. [Points at a hippo cow eating a piece of meat swarming with flies.]
{Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season 3, Episode 2 (42nd of the overall series)}
Reminds me very much of that particular scene…